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A Kid that's 15 a needs some place to get started

Started by KingNothing33 Dec 15, 2012 at 7:15 PM 9 replies 2.2k views

Original Post

Dec 15, 2012 at 7:15 PM

Intro Feel free to skip, if you wish.
Alright so I'm 15, I'm a freshman in High School, I'm thinking of making an indie game or one with a really small team.

I've had a tad bit of experience in making games, I make game level's on Unity 3d all the time, I've once had to make game like Amnesia: The Dark Descent for a science project in Unity, but I finished it within a couple of hours. I've made plenty of games on RPG Maker VX, 001 Game Maker, and Game Maker Studio.

The only thing I honestly believe helps me with the game i have in mind is the Unity game I had to make for a Science project.

The Game Itself

The Idea came to me when I was playing board games with my family the other night, we were playing a game called Munchkin, It was like D&D without the crazy Roleplay stuff and on a game board with cards. In the game, there was always at the beginning of a turn 'Kick Down The Door' phase, which was basically 'Random Encounters' but included Curses, Traps, Class or Race Cards and sometimes Treasure. I loved that Idea, after you kick down the door, you can either 'Loot the Room' or 'Look for Trouble', where you can pick up any 'Kick Down the Door' card and put it in your hand, while the latter you can choose a monster from your hand to fight.

I loved all of those Ideas, I want to incorporate these ideas but I have no Idea how i Will do it without using 'Cards'. I would prefer to not deal with cards, but if there really isn't a way to use those ideas without the cards, then i'll use cards.

The other inspiration i got was from playing a F2P Indie Game named 'Realm of the Mad God' It had 6 or 7 maps per server, and for every map it was expansive, Almost endless. the monsters were the same, and the terrain was easy to recognize no matter how random the maps were. it had a small class system where you had to level other classes to get to the one you enjoy. It played like Diablo, 1 and 2. It was pixelated. It reminded me a little of Minecraft in a way. I could bring friends a long to help me on my aimless journey. the best part of it, Random Dungeons would appear, I loved it.

I want to use the cards Idea, but I love the Realm of the Mad God. I want to somehow combine both.

This is the world map; The Light green is Villages, Light Blue is Major towns, and Dark Blue is The Capital.

[attachment=12837:303772_484743271564678_2074689641_n.jpg]
(Picture has bad quality. I apologize)

Where to start?

Where do I start with a project like this? I want the game to have its own engine. Where do I find great tutorials for this sort of thing? are there tutorials for making very simple yet effective Pixelated Spirtes? and any suggestions would be great. Thanks GameDev.net Community. I apologize for any errors, my laptop is fucked up.

3Ddreamer

Dec 15, 2012 at 10:02 PM

[sub]Hi,[/sub]

[sub]From what you wrote, you seem to have a made mind to do this. That is good! [/sub]

[sub]Unity would be a fabulous engine for you. I am sure that there must be a way to make art content from Blender to Unity. Blender lets people create very nice looking things, including the ability to animate them. Mr. Search has plenty of good tutorial advice for you, but YouTube would be a good place to start - sprites, too.[/sub]

[sub]I like your rough outline concept for a map. [/sub]

[sub]Clinton[/sub]

minibutmany

Dec 15, 2012 at 11:25 PM

Hi,
No need to create your own engine for this because there are already plenty out there to work with. As you said, Unity is one option. If you are interested in using a coding language, for C++ you can use SFML, or SDL. I personally use java a lot and recommend LWJGL. LWJGL is much more user friendly I think than SFML to get working. Both SFML and LWJGL are based on OpenGL, which mean that their APIs are pretty similar. As far as graphics go, you need to get an Adobe product like photoshop or illustrator. These have inexpensive student versions. Unfortunately windows paint usually won't suffice for game assets. If you google any of the engines or languages I have mentioned you will come across quite a bit of documentation for each.

kburkhart84

Dec 15, 2012 at 11:50 PM

If you don't need 3d, you would be best off with Game Maker Studio. If you need 3d, then go with Unity3d. You have experience with both of these according to your post, and they both can do pretty much anything as far as game play.

Also, you don't want to make an engine...trust me here.

ISDCaptain01

Dec 16, 2012 at 1:30 AM

Yeah start now so when u get to college u can breeze through computer science

KingNothing33

Dec 16, 2012 at 2:17 AM

Clinton, Hello,

I personally don't like using Blender, and I haven't really tinkered with it, a friend of my family said he could get me a deal on 3ds Max. so I haven't messed with it.
I've tried Youtube but ( I hate to sound spoiled) I don't like most of them, Bad Quality or too rushed, I've tried BurgZergArcade's tutorials. I don't intend on fully starting till Mid-February, when my schedule gets more open. This just seemed Viable to get help from actual Game-freaks like I am so I know where to kick off.

minibutmany, Hello,

I've done 5 or 6 Scripts with my experience on the games, half of them being Java, half of them being C#. and I honestly have no idea what any acronyms mean or the difference in each.

As for the Adobe stuff you mentioned, for the Map I used Paint.net,I intend to use something different, I have asked for a Photoshop license but that is one of those things I have to get myself.

I've signed up for 4 or 5 Game-related classes for my next semester (Web-page, Technical Design, Architectural Design, and a Photoshop Class) It's not the best hand but it's a good enough one.

My friend and I have spent 3 or 4 nights awake over the summer looking at engines and other freeware that help with game creation. Unity was the best out of all.

kburkhart84,

I want it to mix between 2d and 3d. Interface, Character NPCs, etc. for 2d and terrain being 3d.

as for the engine part.. I know it's not ideal, it was just a thought.

MrJoshL

Dec 16, 2012 at 4:01 AM

I will give you this, you aren't so much like the other kids on the interwebs who just DEMAND information they don't even understand and expect things to happen. Well, I would say that you should pick up a programming language or two and just dive in. If creating everything from C or something like that sounds a bit daunting, you can always either
A) use the code of someone else's engine for your own project (make sure you have permission and/or the project is LPGL'd, MIT'd, etc.)
B) use something like Unity, UDK, or any premade engine software with a lighter language like JavaScript to make a game

One thing I always tell the kids on this site and others who ask about this type of thing is that regardless of if you are starting from scratch or not (although more so if you are), you need a SOLID grounding in mathematics knowledge. There is no special threshold you have to cross, really, but the more math you can apply to everyday situations in programming (just like all engineering), the more efficient your code will be, and the less time it will take to write it. If your knowledge is limited to, say, Algebra and Geometry, you will find yourself looking up many things online and studying for non-school-related mathematics, and you will arrive with a clunky mess that took you several years to write. I think you get my point on that.

Try to get your software (whether it is yours from scratch, borrowed, or purchased/licensed) up and running before starting on your content. Something I have sometimes wondered with all of you kids asking on this site is that how you would go about selling a game, with no ability to legally own property, have titles, and/or enter a contract. I'm not discouraging you, but I just don't see how that would work. I guess you could put someone else's name on it, but I don't see how that would work either. One last thing is to be the most polite you can on forums and NEVER tell people your age (you can get away with a few certain things here, but on more professional sites like Stack Overflow people don't like too much bad language, immaturity, or being rude. At all.) When you tell people your age, there are also trolls out there (believe it or not) that hate little kids.

Good Luck (I've never told that to a kid before)

KingNothing33

Dec 16, 2012 at 11:53 PM

MrJosh, Thanks. And I actually have no intention of selling this. It's just for me and my friends to play on our spare time, a project of leisure.

I myself am not a very good with mathematics, but I do know a good bit of design, art and other things, I took a 'Game Camp' during the spring when I was 13 that introduced me to coding. the program was called Bootstrap and I was fairly good at it. I wrote my own Engine and did some generation procedures, the problem is, Bootstrap was it's own language of code designed for 8-13 year old kids. and I haven't messed around with it for 2 years now, and I have a terrible memory.

The problem with me and Math is that i'm in Average 9th grade High School math and my other core classes are apart of the Honor's program. Engineering and stuff along the lines i don't understand all too well. I know it's going to be a bit rough to start an engine or use another pre-built one and work with it. It was just a thought so once I finish the Engine I would have a better understanding of whatever Coding language I would be using.

and Thanks again. I appreciate it, I've asked questions on other sites such as Youtube and other Forums and I get backlash whenever I reveal i'm a kid. Glad this isn't the case.

MrJoshL

Dec 17, 2012 at 1:35 AM

And if you ever get bored of trying to make a computer game, there is always Dungeons and Dragons and other physical RPG's. Making dioramas and setting up an ol' campaign is much, much more reward per-man-hour than trying to make a computer game, and if you spend time making dioramas and actually try to have fun, it is just as good as a PC game.

KingNothing33

Dec 17, 2012 at 3:49 AM

I used to be into D&D but none of my buddies are into it and my family never had the time so it kind of just died away.
but I used to play Roblox (Digital Legos basically) and I would make up RPG's with my buddies and we'd play almost every night.

I have been wanting to make a full on video game since i was a young lad. to actually finish one and play it, and enjoy it would probably relieve the 'I Can't make a game, i'm too young' hurdle I've been having since that Game-coding camp awhile ago.

I've always wanted it as a career because i would always be fascinated with worlds of my imagination. some of those worlds are in that scratchy map I made above.

I'm ready to commit. I just need the tools and focus to do it.

I also write a ton, my English teachers and Creative Writing teachers tell me I could be a great Author or Poet when i'm older. so the story isn't going to be an issue

MrJoshL

Dec 17, 2012 at 11:35 AM

Then learn as much mathematics as you can, programming is not an art, its a science. The reason people tell kids "Oh, you can't make that," is because of a lack of academic prowess with what is needed to make one. Let's say that you decide to use Unity to make your game (the smartest choice for you IMHO), you still need to at least understand rasterization to build assets with the correct winding order, or find out how the random number generator works (Mersenne prime numbers?), use branching and efficient search/testing for AI, and a plethora of other things. My point isn't that you can't, and definitely isn't that you shouldn't try, it is that you should pay your best attention to mathematics.

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